Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    The King’s Threshold
    The King’s Threshold
    The King’s Threshold
    Ebook80 pages53 minutes

    The King’s Threshold

    By W. B. Yeats

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    W.B. Yeats was an Irish poet who was one of the biggest contributors to the Irish Literary Revival of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.  In 1923, Yeats became the first Irishman to be awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.  This edition of The King’s Threshold includes a table of contents.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherCharles River Editors
    Release dateMar 22, 2018
    ISBN9781518341632
    The King’s Threshold
    Author

    W. B. Yeats

    William Butler Yeats is widely regarded as one of the finest English language poets. His eclectic output frequently draws on his chief passions for the occult and the history of his homeland. The poetry, while often mystical and romantic, can also be gritty, realistic and frequently political. Yeats was also a major playwright and founded the Abbey Theatre, Ireland’s national theatre. He received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1923.

    Read more from W. B. Yeats

    Related to The King’s Threshold

    Related ebooks

    Classics For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      A Change Takes Place

      Oct 28, 2019

      A Change Takes Place
      5 min read

    • Article

      A Change Happens

      May 29, 2020

      A Change Happens
      5 min read

    • Article

      Bard In The Woods

      Nov 30, 2020

      Bard In The Woods
      4 min read

    • Article

      Dearly DEPARTED

      Apr 25, 2021

      Dearly DEPARTED
      2 min read

    • Article

      Lol

      Oct 6, 2021

      Lol
      3 min read

    • Article

      Five Poems

      Dec 1, 2022

      You have to first Sit in the temple gloom In the mahogany chair & despair. The only glimmer In the temple (being the inlaid bits of The Mother-Of-Pearl shells On the tall, more than humanly tall Chair back, for these These too Are the reputed “Tears

      3 min read

    • Article

      TALL, WIDE, and Piercing Eyes

      Mar 1, 2019

      TALL, WIDE, and Piercing Eyes
      7 min read

    • Article

      Echo and Narcissus

      Mar 7, 2022

      Echo and Narcissus
      7 min read

    • Article

      Justice

      Mar 15, 2018

      I had been told that the interviewer was waiting for me outside in the hotel garden. The muffled oceanic roar of traffic rose steadily from the nearby road. She was sitting alone on a bench amid the raw planted beds and network of gravel paths, gazin

      22 min read

    • Article

      Must-Read Poetry: September 2017

      Sep 11, 2017

      Isn’t that one of the purest goals of poetry—to justify our breaths? To recognize that we matter? The post Must-Read Poetry: September 2017 appeared first on The Millions.

      8 min read

    • Article

      Damion Searls

      Sep 15, 2019

      Joseph Moxon, Mechanick Exercises. Vol. 2 (1683–84), the first known manual of printing J. M. begins his book,Every thought taken up from the block with a rollOf the ball and inked on the form,A Craft of the Hand which cannot be taught by Words:“I th

      6 min read

    • Article

      Three Poems by Rohan Chhetri

      Sep 8, 2020

      All summer the half voice lurked behind me & I played deaf for days for to live To not write about it to use my body Part the river’s flesh to operate Machinery is human too to love & for once stay awake through it all. Now it comes like the deer sle

      3 min read

    • Article

      The Mermaid And The Boy

      Jun 3, 2020

      The Mermaid And The Boy
      5 min read

    • Article

      The Island

      Jun 4, 2018

      The Island
      8 min read

    • Article

      Three Poems

      Jan 1, 2020

      In class, I stared because of the blood going blue.The chalk that coated our fingerly teeth.The way we lapped each other (on the shorewhere the flowering). I gave away our location. Smacked my lips in the coat closet.Sucked at her teeth. We, on all e

      4 min read

    • Article

      The Island (catullus 64)

      Mar 1, 2022

      Back then the evergreens tumbled downriverfrom the glaze-white runoff to the boot-stirred puddlesof amber young men who fulfilled our destiny,who clambered into ships, on horses, and in wagonspainting the newfound landscapes ours.Our calling was nobl

      9 min read

    • Article

      Poetry Rx: This Is the Year

      Jan 3, 2019

      Poetry Rx: This Is the Year
      7 min read

    • Article

      The Pink

      Sep 22, 2023

      The Pink
      1 min read

    • Article

      The Lost Jewels

      Nov 28, 2018

      The Lost Jewels
      19 min read

    • Article

      Ilse Kleyn Prophetic Artist

      Jun 24, 2019

      Ilse Kleyn Prophetic Artist
      7 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for The King’s Threshold

    0 ratings

    0 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      The King’s Threshold - W. B. Yeats

      THE KING’S THRESHOLD

      ..................

      W. B. Yeats

      KYPROS PRESS

      Thank you for reading. In the event that you appreciate this book, please consider sharing the good word(s) by leaving a review, or connect with the author.

      This book is a work of nonfiction and is intended to be factually accurate.

      All rights reserved. Aside from brief quotations for media coverage and reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced or distributed in any form without the author’s permission. Thank you for supporting authors and a diverse, creative culture by purchasing this book and complying with copyright laws.

      Copyright © 2015 by W. B. Yeats

      Interior design by Pronoun

      Distribution by Pronoun

      TABLE OF CONTENTS

      The King’s Threshold

      LIST OF CHARACTERS

      A PROLOGUE.[1]

      THE KING’S THRESHOLD.

      THE KING’S THRESHOLD

      ..................

      LIST OF CHARACTERS

      ..................

      King Guaire.

      The Chamberlain of King Guaire.

      A Soldier.

      A Monk.

      The Mayor of Kinvara.

      A Cripple.

      Another Cripple.

      Aileen,}Ladies of the Court.

      Essa,

      Princess Buan.

      Princess Finnhua, her Sister.

      Fedelm, Seanchan’s Sweetheart.

      Cian,}Servants of Seanchan.

      Brian,

      Senias,}Pupils of Seanchan.

      Arias,

      Seanchan (pronounced Shanahan), Chief Poet of Ireland.

      Pupils, Courtiers.

      A PROLOGUE.[1]

      ..................

      AN OLD MAN WITH A red dressing-gown, red slippers and red nightcap, holding a brass candlestick with a guttering candle in it, comes on from side of stage and goes in front of the dull green curtain.

      Old Man.

      I’ve got to speak the prologue. [He shuffles on a few steps.] My nephew, who is one of the play actors, came to me, and I in my bed, and my prayers said, and the candle put out, and he told me there were so many characters in this new play, that all the company were in it, whether they had been long or short at the business, and that there wasn’t one left to speak the prologue. Wait a bit, there’s a draught here. [He pulls the curtain closer together.] That’s better. And that’s why I’m here, and maybe I’m a fool for my pains.

      And my nephew said, there are a good many plays to be played for you, some to-night and some on other nights through the winter, and the most of them are simple enough, and tell out their story to the end. But as to the big play you are to see to-night, my nephew taught me to say what the poet had taught him to say about it. [Puts down candlestick and puts right finger on left thumb.] First, he who told the story of Seanchan on King Guaire’s threshold long ago in the old books told it wrongly, for he was a friend of the king, or maybe afraid of the king, and so he put the king in the right. But he that tells the story now, being a poet, has put the poet in the right.

      And then [touches other finger] I am to say: Some think it would be a finer tale if Seanchan had died at the end of it, and the king had the guilt at his door, for that might have served the poet’s cause better in the end. But that is not true, for if he that is in the story but a shadow and an image of poetry had not risen up from the death that threatened him, the ending would not have been true and joyful enough to be put into the voices of players and proclaimed in the mouths of trumpets, and poetry would have been badly served.

      [He takes up the candlestick again.

      And as to what happened Seanchan after, my nephew told me he didn’t know, and the poet didn’t know, and it’s likely there’s nobody that knows. But my nephew thinks he never sat down at the king’s table again, after the way he had been treated, but that he went to some quiet green place in the hills with Fedelm, his sweetheart, where the poor people made much of him because he was wise, and where he made songs and poems, and it’s likely enough he made some of the old songs and the old poems the poor people on the hillsides are saying and singing to-day.

      [A trumpet-blast.

      Well, it’s time for me to be going. That trumpet means that the curtain is going to rise, and after a while the stage there will be filled up

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1